TSK, in partnership with LEEPL, announce breakthrough development in lithography system for 100nm - 50 nm design rule.
LEEPL Corp. has established a new type of lithography system for 100 nm - 50 nm design rule.
Tokyo Seimitsu Co., Ltd.(hereafter called TSK), Mr. Hideo Ohtsubo, Chairman and CEO, has just announced that LEEPL Corporation, Dr. Takao Utsumi, Chairman, Dr. Nobuo Shimazu, President, a TSK affiliate, has developed a solution for putting projection lithography systems, mask manufacturing systems, and mask inspection systems, used for manufacturing IC with line widths from 100 nm to 50 nm, into practical use.
This projection lithography system has been developed by LEEPL Corp., based on U.S. and Japanese patents owned by Nanolith, L.L.C., Dr. Takao Utsumi, President, located in N. J., USA. It is different from mainstream development efforts of Next Generation Lithography (NGL), such as optical lithography equipment or high-energy E-beam projection lithography systems.
The new method is called "Low Energy E-beam Proximity Lithography (LEEPL)".
It is believed that LEEPL may bring a paradigm shift in the semiconductor manufacturing process, because of its simplicity of machine configuration, low unit cost, high reliability, high throughput and easy mask design and fabrication.
As this new method of projection lithography requires a mask manufactured by 1x magnification of very fine line widths, finding a solution for this task was key to putting this new projection lithography system into practical use. We are proud to announce that, thanks to our co-development with NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (hereafter called NTT-AT) at this point, NTT-AT and LEEPL Corp. have established the technology up to 50 nm, based on a newly developed 1x-mask technology advanced jointly by ASET and NTT.
Furthermore, it is considered that copying processes can be applied for reproduction of the identical LEEPL masks. As for LEEPL mask inspection, TSK holds the solution for it. By changing its light source to E-beam, TSK's wafer inspection system, WINWIN 50, is perfectly suited for this application.
As mainstream optical lithography advances to KrF, ArF, and F2 over time, prices for such systems are expected to be very high. Alternatively, this new LEEPL system can be profitable even though they are supplied to the marketplace at half the price of the optical lithography system of the time.
It is essential to cooperate with device manufacturers to accomplish this new process technology development. Therefore, a semiconductor maker has joined LEEPL Corp. and TSK to develop it together. The role of the semiconductor maker will be to develop multiple-layer resist pattern process and to improve the Beta machine.
Moreover, the semiconductor maker, TSK and LEEPL Corp. would consider welcoming another third party into their development efforts so that LEEPL technology will be accepted widely in the industry.
With regard to patent protection for this projection lithography system, since these patents are conceptually fundamental and are claimed for optimal values of the electromagnetic parameters, it is extremely difficult to fabricate similar products or avoid the patents.
A concrete business plan is currently being prepared. TSK has already secured a site and plans to build production facilities.
